Stephen King Shares Absolutely Terrifying Art Of IT’s Pennywise

Stephen King has shared an absolutely terrifying new illustration of Pennywise from It. The novel It came out in 1986, and it revolves around the horrifying experience shared by seven children in small-town America, and how they attempt to get a handle on it as adults. The novel was originally adapted into a two-part TV movie in 1990 with an ensemble cast that featured Seth Green and Jonathan Brandis in the child cast and John Ritter and Annette O’Toole in the adult cast. That project was followed by the big-budget 2017 film It: Chapter One, which adapted the first half of the story, with a cast including Finn Wolfhard, Jaeden Lieberher, and Sophia Lillis. That film’s sequel, It: Chapter Two, followed the storyline of the adults, with a cast including Jessica Chastain, Bill Hader, and James McAvoy.

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The main antagonist of It is the terrifying Pennywise the Clown. Pennywise is the primary identity taken on by a shape-shifting trans-dimensional entity who lurks in the sewers of Derry, Maine, where he tries to lure in children. In the original miniseries, the character was played by Tim Curry, the iconic performer who is best known for his roles in projects including The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Clue, and Muppet Treasure Island. In It: Chapter One and Chapter Two, the role was taken over by Bill Skarsgård, who went on to appear in Marvel’s Eternals and the upcoming 2022 thriller Barbarian.

Related: Stephen King’s Pennywise Prequel Can Avoid A Major IT Problem

On his official Twitter account, King participated in a modern trend in the most terrifying way possible. AI illustrators have become an increasingly popular way to bring bizarre ideas to life with an off-kilter spin, and people have been using them to imagine everything from Chris Evans as Wolverine to a piña colada getting caught in the rain. King, of course, asked his “tech friend” Jake to have an AI create an illustration of Pennywise on a bike, and the results are predictably terrifying. Check out the result below:

King certainly seems to have stumbled upon the perfect subject for this kind of AI portrait. So far, AI art has proven to be imperfect, with frequently blurred or warped features on the face. While this can be alarming to behold when it’s attempting to represent human beings, it turns out it is even more bone-chilling when the design style is appropriately representing the shape-shifting menace presented by the ancient evil at the center of It.

It has remained such an important part of the American horror landscape because of the unknowable nature of its villain, and the way it taps into any and all childhood fears. This certainly explains why Pennywise keeps coming back again and again, most recently in the upcoming prequel series Welcome to Derry. If any project is able to adequately capture this new image of Pennywise in live-action, it might just be the scariest entry yet.

Source: Stephen King